1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a magnetic recording apparatus for a camera, in which a film feed mechanism for feeding a film is improved.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cameras using films with magnetic recording media have recently been known. In a conventional camera, a technique of optically recording data, typically date data, on a film has a drawback of a small recording capacity. In contrast to this, the recording capacity of a magnetic recording medium is very large. Therefore, in a camera using a film with a magnetic recording medium, various data for photography, data for designating print conditions, and the like, which cannot be optically recorded, can be recorded.
In addition, if such a camera is designed to receive external data to be recorded from, e.g., a personal computer, the camera will have a wider range of applications.
However, the recording capacity of the magnetic recording medium of the film described above is determined by the shape of a magnetic head used, a modulation scheme, the magnetic properties of the medium, and the like. Especially in a camera, since it is difficult to position the recording medium of a film, which is caused to travel by a wind-up operation or the like, and a magnetic head with high precision, the maximum amount of data which can be recorded is limited by this positioning precision.
In order to set the position of a film with high precision with respect to the magnetic head, the camera requires a mechanism which follows variations in the state of the film. For example, such a mechanism is disclosed in International Publication No. WO90/06536. If the mechanism disclosed in this official gazette is realized and is arranged in a camera, the size and cost of the camera inevitably increase. Hence, the use of such a mechanism is not practical. It is, however, apparent that if the positional precision of a film with respect to the magnetic head is higher than a predetermined value, a practically sufficient amount of data can be recorded without arranging the mechanism disclosed in the gazette.
In conventional cameras, however, no methods of achieving such high precision of a film with respect to the magnetic head have been clarified.